Life of an American poker playing expat, turned teacher, in Australia | 707 VPPs in 2013

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Hong Kong & Macau

So I've been sitting here in room 2876 of the Grand Lisboa hotel in Macau and have been pretty bored actually, so I thought what better way to kill time than to blog again? After getting back from Australia, I spent a whole month (!) at home in Fairfax where I just enjoyed the home life. However chill it is, that is ultimately the problem with it – home is hella boring. That should be no surprise to me I guess, since I am so used to being on the go and spending time elsewhere. That said, my strongest desire these days is to move out and live on my own, permanently. I really wanted to move out to San Francisco but plans for that fell through, so I considered NYC, Sydney (wonderful place I'm definitely going back to sometime), and the greater Northern Virginia area – Arlington. The last place on that list is home for most of my good friends so it'd be a great place for me to hang out. That and being close to my family are two things going for me. It's close to Washington DC so if it ever gets too boring, I'll METRO on over to the national mall. Additionally, it really is tough moving to a completely new place and starting my life and social network all over. Even though I've got some roots in Sydney from my previous stay there, it's nothing like Arlington. Besides I can always move to Sydney a year down the road. I just hope they haven't banned me from the country; I got 5-6 speeding tickets from the rental car (caught on camera) during last trip there, and I don't even know how they expect to collect from me in the states... I suppose Arlington just makes the most sense for me for the next six months to one year.

Anyways, after a month living at home, I won a package to participate in a tournament in Macau, which is a small island 30 miles west of Hong Kong. I flew to HK about 2 weeks ago and I spent about 4 days there with my family before meeting up with some previous friends I made here, and of course my friend Brandon (we did the whole NZ thing together and met up again in Sydney/Vegas). We went exploring for a little bit before we hopped on a boat over to Macau. After checking into a grand hotel shrouded in opulence known as the Best Western, we walked the streets everyday and almost died in the heat and humidity. We played and finished the first of two tournaments there before heading over to the Grand Lisboa hotel which I'm at now. This hotel is actually deserving of the previous said title; it has yummy restaurants, a sweet gym+pool, and the rooms are dank. I actually haven't left the building in 2 days, which is a depressing, so I'm going on a night run of Macau as soon as I'm done writing this. This hotel has the strangest structure in Macau, and maybe the world; it is supposed to look like a lotus leaf, so its sides are very unique. Our room is at one of the edges of the “leaf,” and there's a pretty nifty angled window where you can (but probably aren't supposed to) lean on and experience the feeling of flying; pretty scary/invigorating.

I recently lost the 2nd of the tournaments that was held here, so I am finished with all the tourneys that I planned to play live this trip. There's not really much to do in Macau besides exploring the many hotels/casinos and partaking in sketchy activities (aka, Las Vegas). Therefore this place doesn't really hold interest for me, and Brandon and I will be returning to Hong Kong as soon as the hotel is up. We still haven't seen Disctrict 9 or Inglorious Basterds!!!! #1 priority for both of us obv.

My next post will be at home in the states, hopefully when I'm all settled down... in A-Town!